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The image was taken using the Hubble Space Telescope and shows the auroras, which are bigger than Earth, lighting up the gas giant’s poles.

While Earth also has auroras, they’re caused by solar storms as opposed to Jupiter’s, which are caused by the massive planet pulling in charged particles from its surroundings as well as the solar winds.

"These auroras are very dramatic and among the most active I have ever seen", says Jonathan Nichols from Britain's University of Leicester and principal investigator of the study. "It almost seems as if Jupiter is throwing a firework party for the imminent arrival of Juno."

The Juno space probe is days away from a rocket burn that will insert the spacecraft into Jupiter’s orbit later this month.....voanews.com1/7/16

The hole in the ozone layer over the Antarctic has begun to shrink, signalling good news for the environment several decades after an international accord to phase out certain pollutants, researchers in the US have said...

The study found that the September ozone hole has shrunk by four million square kilometers (1.5 million square miles since 2000) - an area about the size of India.

"It's a big surprise," said lead author Professor Susan Solomon, an atmospheric chemist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in an interview with Science magazine.

"I didn't think it would be this early."

The ozone hole was first discovered in the 1950s.

It reached record size in October 2015, but Prof Solomon and colleagues determined that this was due to the eruption of the Chilean volcano Calbuco.

The overall trend toward recovery became apparent when scientists studied measurements from satellites, ground-based instruments and weather balloons in the month of September, not October when the ozone hole typically peaks in size.

"I think people, myself included, had been too focused on October, because that's when the ozone hole is enormous," said Prof Solomon.

"But October is also subject to the slings and arrows of other things that vary, like slight changes in meteorology."

The study attributed the ozone's recovery to the "continuing decline of atmospheric chlorine originating from chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)," or chemicals that were once emitted by dry cleaning, refrigerators, hairspray and other aerosols.

Most of the world signed on to the Montreal Protocol in 1987, which banned the use of CFCs.

"We can now be confident that the things we've done have put the planet on a path to heal," said Prof Solomon.AFP1/7/16

At least 30 homes and a school were destroyed in an earthquake that caused no injuries or deaths in Tajikistan, the ex-Soviet country's state emergencies committee reported Saturday...

A committee spokesman told AFP an earthquake of 5.4 magnitude struck in the remote Rasht region roughly 200 kilometres (124 miles) east of the Central Asian country's capital Dushanbe at around 1500 GMT on Friday.

A full assessment of the damage is still being carried out by the committee's team on the ground, the spokesman added.

Mountainous and poverty-struck Tajikistan is prone to regular natural disasters including landslides and earthquakes.

Last week in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan a stronger quake of 6.7 magnitude struck close to the nation's shared border according to the Kyrgyz emergency services ministry, but did not cause damage or casualties.AFP 2/7/16

A solar-powered spacecraft is spinning toward Jupiter for a close encounter with the biggest planet in our solar system...

NASA's Juno spacecraft fires its rocket engine late Monday to slow itself down from a speed of 250,000 kph and slip into orbit around Jupiter.

Juno was put on autopilot days ago, so the critical move comes without any help from ground controllers. The spacecraft's camera and other instruments were also turned off for the arrival so there won't be any pictures at the moment Juno reaches its destination.

However the mission still faces the huge challenge of operating the $1.1 billion probe in one of the solar system's harshest environments, where circuitry-frying levels of radiation and high velocity dust and particles will be a constant threat.

Should all go to plan, Juno's instruments and camera could provide insights into the history of the solar system and return stunning images of the planet......http://www.rte.ie/news/2016/0705/800196-juno-orbits-jupiter/

Four people lost their lives in northern India Saturday after entering a commercial building while it was being demolished, police said...

One person was pulled out alive from under the rubble and was undergoing treatment in a local hospital in Meerut city in Uttar Pradesh state, police said.

"We are yet to complete our rescue work but don't think there is anyone else under the rubble," Daya Shankar Dwivedi, a spokesman for the senior superintendent of Meerut Police, told AFP.

Police have registered a criminal case against the Meerut Cantonment Board, which was carrying out the demolition drive after a state court order.

Police said the victims went inside the building without permission while the demolition process was ongoing.

"Initially, the authorities had sanitized the entire structure and its surroundings but the victims, who own a tea shop next to the building, went in on the pretext of collecting some goods when the structure collapsed over them," Dwivedi said.

The victims included a father and his son and two relatives.

The police said their probe will assess whether those in charge of demolition at the site were neglectful in their duties.AFP9/7/16

On Sunday evening, July 10, on the North coast of Ecuador earthquake with a magnitude of 6.3 and 6.4, according to the European Mediterranean seismological centre (EMSC) and the US Geological survey (USGS)...

This earthquake was preceded by aftershocks of magnitude up to 5.9.

The epicenter was located about 150 km North-West of Quito (capital of Ecuador). Closest to the epicenter of the largest town – the town Rosa Zarate, located 30 km to the South. Hearth lies at a depth of 35-45 km.

Information on destructions and victims did not arrive yet.....israel-today.ru11/7/16

Flash floods triggered by torrential rain have killed at least 22 people in India and forced more than 170,000 from their homes, officials said Monday, as forecasters predicted more downpours in coming days...

India's monsoon rains, though vital for agriculture, regularly bring death and destruction. The rain was 35 percent above average in the week that ended on July 6, the weather office said.

Twenty people were killed in the central state of Madhya Pradesh where 70,000 people were left homeless as water rose to dangerous levels along parts of the Narmada river.

Firemen waded through thigh-deep water to rescue women and children in flooded villages while rescue teams used inflatable boats to reach people stranded in urban areas.

"Thousands of people will be evacuated today. We are working on a war footing mode to set up relief camps," additional home secretary Basant Singh said in Bhopal, the state capital.

"The health department is distributing medicines to prevent outbreak of water-borne diseases.".....REUTERS

A Japanese court on Tuesday upheld an order to keep two reactors operated by Kansai Electric Power closed, the utility said, helping keep efforts to get the country's struggling nuclear industry up and running in limbo...

The decision, which backs a petition from residents living near the Takahama atomic station west of Tokyo, means Kansai Electric must go to a higher court to try and win permission to get the reactors back online

The move marks the latest judicial impediment to utilities' attempts to restore atomic power after the Fukushima disaster five years ago. Two out of Japan's 42 operable reactors are running, but a local governor who won election on Sunday has vowed to shut those units down.

While Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government is keen to restore a power source that provided about a third of electricity supply before the meltdowns at Fukushima, the public remains deeply skeptical over industry assurances on safety.

Residents have lodged injunctions against nearby nuclear plants across Japan and lower courts have been increasingly siding with them on safety concerns.

Contentious verdicts are usually overturned by higher courts, where judges tend to be more attuned to government policy, judicial experts say....Reuters12/7/16

Spain has begun its first heatwave of the summer with more than a dozen regions gripped by temperatures in excess of 41 degrees Celcius (106 Fahrenheit), the country's meteorological institute said Monday...

Clear skies and very dry air are set to allow temperatures to soar across much of the penninsula until at least Thursday, said Angel Alcazar, the agency's spokesman.EFE18/7/16

The latest downpours to hit China have killed seven people and left at least seven missing, authorities said Tuesday.

Tuesday's heavy rain in central China's Hubei Province has killed five residents in Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, bringing the death toll in Hubei to six, according to the provincial bureau of civil affairs. One person remains missing.

The downpours since Sunday have affected 807,800 people in 35 cities and counties in Hubei, according to the bureau.

In north China's Hebei Province, strong rain killed one person and left at least six residents missing on Tuesday in Cixian County, according to the local government. Three people are still trapped. Rescuers are trying to reach the site, but flooded roads are hampering rescue efforts.

More heavy rain is forecast to hit China in the coming days, said the China Meteorological Administration. The National Meteorological Center has also raised its storm alert from yellow to orange.

China has a four-tier color-coded system for severe weather, with red being the most serious, followed by orange, yellow and blue.

The center advised residents to take precautions against possible floods, landslides, mudslides and rock flows.globaltimes.cn19/7/16

Rising temperatures caused by climate change may cost the world economy over $2 trillion in lost productivity by 2030 as hot weather makes it unbearable to work in some parts of the world... according to U.N. research published Tuesday.

It showed that in Southeast Asia alone, up to 20 percent of annual work hours may already be lost in jobs with exposure to extreme heat — with the figures set to double by 2050, as the effects of climate change deepen.

Across the globe, 43 countries will see a fall in their gross domestic product (GDP) due to reduced productivity, the majority of them in Asia including Indonesia, Malaysia, China, India and Bangladesh, researcher Tord Kjellstrom said.

Indonesia and Thailand could see their GDP reduced by 6 percent in 2030, while in China GDP could be reduced by 0.8 percent and in India by 3.2 percent....REUTERS

The Philippines is reviewing its "crazy" commitment to severely cut greenhouse-gas emissions in the Paris climate deal, new President Rodrigo Duterte has warned...

The government of predecessor Benigno Aquino had pledged to the United Nations to cut the Asian country's emissions by 70 percent by 2030 from 2000 levels if it got support from developed nations to convert to clean technologies.

"I have misgivings about this Paris (climate deal).... The problem is these industrialised countries have reached their destination," Duterte said in a series of speeches during a visit to the southern island of Mindanao on Friday.

The international deal aimed at curbing emissions was signed in Paris in December last year, but only 19 countries including France and island-states threatened by rising sea levels have so far ratified the agreement.

It cannot become effective until 55 countries accounting for 55 percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions have fully approved it.

"There is no treaty to honour. We have not signed the treaty," Duterte said, according to transcripts of his comments released by the presidential palace Saturday.

Duterte, who was elected to a six-year term in May, also said poor countries such as the Philippines should be allowed to pursue industrialisation to improve the lives of their people.

"My plan is to put up industrial zones everywhere," said Duterte, with China an "easy market" for such a move.

"If you will not allow us to reach parity, you are already there and we are still here, then I'm saying that's crazy. I will not agree to that."

Duterte said the treaty restrictions would be difficult to implement and the legislature was already reviewing the document...AFP..channelnewsasia.com23/7/16

The sighting of an oily sheen on the North Saskatchewan River from last week's Husky Energy pipeline leak has prompted the City of Prince Albert to shut down the intake at its water treatment plant.

City manager Jim Toye says the slick was spotted near the Saskatchewan community of more than 35,000 shortly after 6:00 a.m. today.

Toye says reservoirs have a two-day supply of water and the city may get permission to tap its storm retention pond for treatment and distribution, which would add another four to five days worth of water........http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/oil-spill-triggers-sask-city-to-shut-down-water-intake-1.300102125/7/16

A magnitude-5.3 earthquake rocked Japan's Ibaraki Prefecture area just north of the country's capital of Tokyo late Wednesday...

Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said the quake, which struck at 11:47 local time, measured lower 5 on Japan's seismic scale that peaks at 7, and was centered just north of the capital in neighboring Ibaraki Prefecture.

According to the weather agency, a tsunami advisory has not been issued.

The temblor struck at a latitude of 36.4 degrees north and a longitude of 140.6 degrees east and at a depth of 50 km, JMA said.

There have been no immediate reports of accident or injury as the result of the quake.

All nuclear reactors are showing no signs of abnormalities, the nuclear watchdog here has said. globaltimes.cn27/7/16

Floods and landslides in Nepal and India have killed more than 90 people in recent days, with at least two million residents forced to flee their homes, officials said Thursday...

Nepal has been worst hit, with homes and bridges destroyed after days of torrential monsoon rains, although water levels were now receding.

"Since Monday, 73 people have been killed in the floods and landslides," home ministry deputy spokesman Jhanka Nath Dhakal told AFP, increasing the death toll from Tuesday after the discovery of 15 more bodies.

"Our teams are working continuously in affected areas to search and rescue. We are also providing relief to the victims."

Images released by the army, which is involved in the operations, showed villagers waiting on rooftops to be evacuated in motorboats.

The worst-hit district was Pyuthan, 250 kilometres (150 miles) west of Kathmandu, where dozens of houses have been swept away.

Scores of people die every year from flooding and landslides during the monsoon rains in Nepal and neighbouring India....AFP

Indian authorities on Saturday tried to rescue thousands of people stranded in flooded villages after a week of heavy rain killed at least 52 people and uprooted tens of thousands of others from their homes in the states of Assam in the remote northeast and Bihar in the east...

Twenty-six deaths have been reported in Assam, where incessant downpours have damaged roads and snapped telephone cables in several districts, a government statement said.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh flew over the worst-hit areas on Saturday and said the floods were "very serious."...AP30/7/16

EL Kaos UT

The UN has imposed a 2013 deadline for the submission of scientific claims to the Arctic seabed. It is the precursor to a resource boom which would see Canada, the US, Russia, Norway and Greenland all attempt to exploit the region's resources.